Our longest walk to date; 5 days. Reaching England felt like a significant milestone, our first border crossed.
We had planned to walk for 6 days in a relaxed fashion but with the advance of Storm Agnes we spent our first night holed up in a basement hotel room in Hawick, waiting out the weather. Next day we set off early. It was a relief to get out of town and into the hills and the expansive green.
The sun was trying to shine and we made good progress until our path was barred by a locked, barbed wire-covered gate.
Having hurled our packs, the dog and ourselves over an adjacent bit of spiky fencing, we had to pick our way over a 10ft deep heap of rotting hay bales which, disconcertingly, gave way with every step. Might have made a good scene in an Indiana Jones film (or not!)
The path had been commandeered by local stables and we saw a horse going round and round in a horse walker (weird concept) and further on gave up trying to get through their gates, piles of asbestos and electrified fencing and skirted round to pick up the route again, where the owners had laid down a good stretch of astro turf on our path.
We walked through a field of cows who decided to follow us to the gate (not relaxing), after which our path took us along disused railway lines for many miles. We had countless encounters with livestock on that and the following days and I began to imagine I was droving the creatures with the power of my mind as we got stuck behind various herds.
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| This bull refused to be mind-droved but thankfully kept a low profile! |
Again and again, our path, which was taking us along public rights of way, was blocked by signs telling us we couldn't go any further. But we did. This earthen bridge over the railway had holes in the ground through which we could see down to the railings below.
And this beautiful, windy viaduct was a pleasure to cross.
And then there was a warning of a £1000 fine if we climbed the gate leading to these abandoned trains at a disused station.
We walked 19k that day and had planned to stop for the night at a particular juncture but when we reached it, it was uninspiring. We looked ahead on the route via our app and saw a spot that looked more promising so kept going. Unfortunately, we had lost internet connection by that point, so although we still had access to the map, we could no longer judge distances. By the time we'd walked another 6 kilometres I was beside myself with tiredness and fury and we still couldn't find the bloody promised land so finally gave up and set up the tent on some bramble-covered ground near a burn. At which point the midges descended in force! As we had been packing to leave I'd remembered Smidge at the last minute, but had been dissuaded from carrying the extra weight, more fool me. Robert kindly handed me his midge net to wear, but not before I'd been thoroughly bitten. He fetched a load of wet firewood, which didn't seem promising but managed to get a fire going, using his Primus stove to heat the feck out of the firewood until it caught. Soon we had a roaring fire going and once we were necking the whisky stash it turned into a bloody good time in the wilderness after all!
Next morning we woke and lo and behold, the Promised Land was actually in the next field though not 'all that'.
We continued along our path but it kept disappearing, had literally been overgrown and was out of use, in spite of our insistently trying to reinstate it. On one occasion we were completely outdone by a bridge over a river that no longer existed and had to retrace our steps along the path and find another way.
We saw many sights, pretty hovels
but didn't fancy stopping for lunch at this cafe!
And we kept following the old railway lines. Seems tragic that this huge infrastructure is no longer in use.
We kept going, following a sign to Kielder
and then reached
We camped at a campsite in Kielder that night and dined in a 'pub' (only defined as such by the presence of a bar. It was more portacabin than bar) and were befriended by hoards of women who dominated the pool table and were together for a safe weekend away in each other’s company, stargazing and cycling.
(One day soon I'll get the hang of this bloody website and its left and central alignments 😖)
Next day we set off, hiking past Kielder Water, enjoying spying unexpected treasures along the way.
We lunched by the water. And later passed a beautiful lily pond,
staying that night at the Blackcock Inn in Falstone where we cleaned up and lay on our bed eating burgers and watching Strictly. Bliss!
Next day the path took us on another impassable route through a field of nettles and we ended up wearily backtracking and taking another course. By the evening we had decided to camp on the side of a quiet country road. Next morning was misty and we were up to the dramatic sight of a logging truck coming through the fog.
We continued our route, eventually reaching Hadrian’s Wall
and headed down into a valley. Duffy grew tired and needed a little lift on Robert’s shoulders.
Having walked through a wooded area scattered with old brick-making furnaces, we finally reached the centre of Britain and our destination - Haltwhistle!
From whence we made our journey home.
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